Experience
the best of rural Southern France - the unspoiled countryside, and
ancient medieval villages of the seldom touristed enclave just north
of the Pyrenees foothills. Long before roads and the recreational
canoeist these rivers were the main means of transport with goods,
with people travelling in small, flat bottomed wooden barges. As
with all our European excursions, we carry forth that water borne
heritage, rivers naturally offering the most vivid, and authentic,
perspective on both landscape and culture. Both rivers offer miles
of continuous current and easy to moderate whitewater (Class I-II)
, with no portages.

The River
Tarn flows through a spectacular deep canyon - the famous ‘Gorges
du Tarn’- long lines of high limestone cliffs that glow in
the waning afternoon light. The Tarn, noted for its crystal clear
turquoise water, white rocks and small sand beaches, courses through
a steep green wooded valley with ancient villages, well preserved,
slumbering under the hot mediterranean sun. Griffin vultures soar
overhead.

The
River Lot winds through the plateau and hills of the Massif Central.
Also flowing through a heavily wooded and semi-wild valley, the
Lot has an extremely pleasant variety of paddling with no natural
obstacles. Passing though many magnificent ancient towns and liaages
along its banks, the entire region is relatively unspoiled . . and
undiscovered by mass tourism.

Accommodations
each evening are in local, ethnic inns in riverside villages along
the waterways paddled. As might be expected in Southern France,
the trip is a culinary adventure as well, as both these valleys
are world renowned for the quality of their food and wine.